Project Almanac

I liked Project Almanac. It didn't necessarily excite me. And I did scratch my head a few times. But ultimately, I liked it. It had an interesting, if slow moving, story. It stayed grounded, or at least tried to, and did it's very best to legitimize time travel as a possibility, even if it doesn't do a very good job of actually explaining the whole thing. Certainly some things are silly, like explaining being able to control the time machine with a cell phone as cell phones 'having enough power to put a rocket in space', but these don't really take away from a lot of the fun dealing with the time travel element.

The story is pretty simple, but actually feels heart felt. David, a genius level teenager newly accepted to MIT, finds himself short on the money to pay his tuition there. This inadvertently leads him to discover an unfinished time machine his absent father left hidden in his basement. While it takes a while for the time travel elements to ramp up, there is fun to be had in seeing these kids build, experiment, and ultimately successfully travel through time. The film does a good job in allowing us to escape certain illogical elements, like how a group of teens with a fairly limited budget could create a fully functioning time machine, much less create one when no one else on earth seemingly could. David and his buddy Adam are already established as being geniuses from the moment the film begins. So, it's not much of a leap that together they could figure out how to complete the already crafted instructions and blueprints sitting in front of them. You could even say there's legitimacy to the use of the found footage style they went for. They even comment on the use of the camera, which at least shows they recognize that it's there.

However, despite some explanation that helps solidify the camera's constant presence, the film , like so many found footage films, would have benefited from simply being shot like a typical narrative. The film even goes the lengths to, strangely enough, be somewhere in between. We see edits that don't make sense for someone whose recording and we have music play over things like a montage. It's just bizarre to see and hear these things play out over a film that is supposed to pretend to be found off camcorder footage. And these production elements aren't bad, they're just out of place and show the film could have benefited from simply eschewing the found footage style all together. There's also some head scratching moments throughout that can be eye-roll-inducing, but I tend to be able to suspend my disbelief, so it didn't bother me as much.

The film overall isn't one I'd probably tell people to run out and see. But I'd certainly tell them it's not a bad film. Far from it, it's a surprise in the sub genre of found footage. And while it doesn't reach the heights of Chronicle, which I consider to be the peak of found footage, I do think it's one of the better found footage films.

And this is true of both the characters in the movie and the viewer. Well the latter should rather try to enjoy as much as possible. Because the science behind it all does not really mix well together. A problem that the movie is not alone with. Mingling with time and trying to make it plausible is almost impossible. Just a few have managed to get the "technical" things right or rather the things right that would seem logical.

But throw logic out of the window, because this is about teenagers. And while you get the obvious "what would you change, if you could" discussion, in the end it all boils down to personal advantage (mostly). And can you blame them? The twist at the end is kind of redundant, but it's there and better than the alternate endings that can be watched on the disc/special features. Enjoyable if you don't think too much

Found footage movies are often pretty predictable and sketchy, but project almanac isn't. Unlike other movies of this genre, the pace is kinda slow, which is appropriate for the story. When you build a time travel machine, it is normal that it takes multiple attempts before it works. Even though sometimes you may wonder why the characters are still filming their journey, it's not disturbing enough to prevent you from focusing on the plot, which is a good thing. There's also a good love story and some funny moments, in addition to a breath taking last act. I'd compare it to the Canadian movie Chronicles.

Overall you'll have a great time watching this movie, even more if you are familiar with this genre.

Project Almanac is a sci-fi found footage film about.... no, not horror.... time travel. I thought it was an interesting way to show a time travel film and really made sense when you were watching it, as to why they would be filming, so it helped to know why they always had a camera out. Overall i would have to say that this was a pretty fun film and doesn't go too over the top with the confusing back and forth through time stuff that other time travel films do. It is pretty easy to understand for a general audience and that helps to have more people follow the plot but can make it a little more predictable. I didn't feel that this was all that predictable though, there were quite a few moments that i could not have guessed and some others that were foreshadowed a little too much. So in terms of the plot it was very coherent for 96% of the film and i have to say was also interesting, just the last 2 minutes of the film for me got unnecessarily complex and ruined the fun adventure the rest of the film felt like.

Also, while this was a found footage film there were many times throughout the film where i was able to forget about that. The shaky cam and awkward camera angles that do bother me in other found footage films didn't have the same effect in this film. Some of the ways that sections are shot with a mounted camera or in an environment that would be shot with a moving camera in a regular film helped to take my mind off the fact that this was just another found footage film. So to make it a found footage film but have elements of just a regularly shot sci-fi film i thought really elevated the film.

In terms of the characters i thought they were all very well written, sometimes a little over exaggerated in terms of their emotions but as a group i thought they worked pretty well. I also have no idea who these actors were but they were all pretty good, no standouts but they were all good to watch. Unfortunately where this film let me down a little was the first section of the film before all of the funky time travel stuff begins, it was just a little too slow and i would have liked for them to just cut to the chase and get to the time travelling without the setup that didn't really add anything to the film except for a few minor plot points later in the film. In the end this sci-fi time travel film does a good job at creating a fun and easily understandable story with pretty good characters. But is let down by a fairly unnecessary first section and a very unnecessarily confusing ending. - 7.3

This film seems to have really divided people on here but on the whole I really liked it.

Teenager David Raskin (A very good Jonny Weston, an actor clearly with a good career ahead of him) is a bit of a brain box at school. His best friend is an even bigger nerd than he is and not as brainy and of course he fancies one of the it girls, while his sister is being bullied by some others. Weston is a very good looking actor, so trying to pass him off as a science geek is really a bit of a stretch one of the films weakest flaws but one I was prepared to forgive. This group form an unlikely alliance when they discover via one of David's deceased Dad's experiments, they have invented time travel. They jump together and change various things in their recent past and also do some fairly typical teenage things like go and win the lottery. Someone on here was moaning saying people wouldn't do that, they would go back and see people they loved and so on - well I am fairly certain as a teenager I would do both.

Our lead character though cannot leave well enough alone and jumps once too often and the ripple effect begins to cause them problems.

Project Almanac is a found footage film and these normally alone will cause me not to watch them but I found the premise of this one intriguing enough to seek it out. It's helped by a reasonably good script which plays out like a good episode of the Twilight Zone but what really helps the film is the cast. Its pretty rare that a group of teenage actors should all be universally so good, but that is certainly the case here. Sofia Black-D'Elia who more recently starred in Born of War is especially good and one I predict big things for while Sam Lerner who plays the thankless role of the Annoying friend clearly has taken on board everything his actor father taught him. This really is a talented group of individuals.

The film reminded me of the 1980s cult film The Explorers and I found myself rooting for the hero towards the end because you wanted him to set everything right. I really enjoyed this film and stayed up really late when I was super tired to watch it. Thankfully I wasn't bored and I was with them until the end. Recommended, from me at least anyway.